Harnessing the potential of exemplars to facilitate learning: insights from translation training

Abstract

Exemplars are key examples chosen to represent designated levels of competence or quality. This study attempts to explore the use of exemplars in a Chinese-English translation teaching context. It involved the teacher-researcher using three exemplars of different quality to help 31 third-year translation majors evaluate their own translation and generate internal feedback. Drawing on multiple sources of data, including student self-assessment, reflective journal writings, and questionnaire responses, we have found that mediated exemplar use could help students make more accurate evaluative judgement of their own translation work and generate internal feedback at various levels (task, discipline, meta-cognitive, and affective). The significance of this research lies in illustrating the potential of exemplar use in facilitating learning, and offering pedagogical implications for productive exemplar-based practice in higher education contexts.